Reforms in FATA

Shehryar Fazli, South Asia editor at The International Crisis Group states that the encroaching Talibanisation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was not the product of tribal traditions or resistance but that of short-sighted military policies and an outdated legal system that isolated the region from the rest of the country, giving it an ambiguous constitutional status and denied political and economic freedom to the populace. In an International Crisis Group report, “Pakistan: Countering Militancy in FATA”, he states that earlier attempts to counter extremism in the tribal areas had failed because they prioritised short-term gain over fundamental changes to the political and administrative set and calls for dismantling of the existing undemocratic system of patronage driven by political agents.